Seven Ways to Showcase Your Students and Their Stories on Your School’s Website

Isn’t it ironic that most school websites don’t tell stories of their students?

In fact, most school websites don’t tell stories at all. Most school websites look the same.

Your students are the reason why your school exists. It is also one of the reasons why a prospective parent or student might select your school.

They want to see the type of students that are enrolled at your school. They want to see the educational and life-changing results of your students. They want to see if their child might look like the students at your school.

During my summer review of over 400 websites, I found several that were utilizing their online presence to tell stories of their students. The following are seven ways that you can implement student stories on your school’s website and in your marketing strategy.

1.         Lawrence Academy Photo Header – Lawrence Academy has the most unique and creative approach in their photo header. The viewer can click on a student and move them across the page showcasing the student in a variety of contexts at the school. It helps to bring to life the student experience at Lawrence Academy.

I saw a similar approach most often in the school websites that I reviewed. These schools feature students in rotating photos on the homepage that link to another page to showcase the student story or testimonial. The following are examples of schools that utilize this approach:

• Presidio Hill School
• Northfield Mount Hermon
• Wilbraham & Monson Academy
• Commonwealth School

2.         My Mercersburg Story – I love this concept on the Mercersburg website. You can find this link in the admission’s navigation. The page features over 30 student faces that you can click on to read more about them and what they like best about Mercersburg.

3.         A Day in the Life at Chapin – One way that you can showcase your school is by featuring different facets of a day in the life of a student. On the Chapin School website homepage, you can click on a box to watch a couple of videos about a day in the life at the school. I have seen this feature on other school websites where several photos and captions provide an overview of the day in the life of a student.

4.         Life After Chapin – One of the more compelling stories you can share on your website is about life after your school. Parents are interested in knowing what the return on their investment might be for their child as a result of enrolling at your school. Once again Chapin shines by highlighting stories of their alumnae from their homepage in their “Life After Chapin” section. Not only can you showcase stories of your graduates, you should also highlight the placement statistics for your graduating class.

5.         Unbound Books at Dana Hall – On Dana Hall’s website in the admissions section, you can click on four unbound books that tell stories about their girls. These four online flip-books provide an engaging and appealing format for the reader featuring stories of their girls. By the way, I love the titles of their four books (e.g. “Dana Hall Loves to See a Girl Today Be a Leader Tomorrow”).

6.         Meet Our Students at Admiral Farragut – On the Admiral Farragut homepage, you can click on the “Meet Our Students” link to read about their students. Each student story features a variety of photos of the student depicted in their school life as well as unique and interesting things about them.

7.         Student Stories at St. John’s Prep – As part of the admission’s section of their website, the viewer can click on and read stories of 11 students. This is a great way to include these stories in the admission’s section.

These are seven engaging and creative ways to tell stories of your students on your website that you should consider implementing at your school.

How are you telling stories of your students on your website?

Which one of these student story ideas can you implement on your website and in your school’s marketing strategy?